


Friends Don't Kiss Like That

by queenoffuckingeverything



Category: A Simple Favor (2018)
Genre: But its fun, F/F, Fluff, I Ship It, Lesbian Sex, Sex, Slow Burn, Smut, i don't know where i'm going with this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-09-29 14:07:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17204780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenoffuckingeverything/pseuds/queenoffuckingeverything
Summary: Stephanie Smothers can't quite figure out what it is about Emily Nelson that she's drawn to, until Emily kisses her and it becomes all too clear.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I watched A Simple Favour a week ago and cannot get this ship outta my head, so this happened! Fair warning; I have no idea where this is going I just knew I had to write something for them. Emily Nelson is in my head and I can't get her out. Props to whoever decided to put Blake Lively in a suit. You ruined me.

Stephanie Smothers wasn’t good at making friends.

Despite how bubbly and outgoing she was, or how much she loved getting involved in absolutely everything and always did so with the utmost enthusiasm, Stephanie didn’t have anyone she’d call a real friend.

Perhaps this was exactly the reason she didn’t have many friends. Some saw her enthusiasm as faked and annoying and truth be told they weren’t all that wrong. Stephanie liked to keep busy to avoid thinking of the darkness of her past and the uncertainty of her future, and the enthusiasm she showed in just about everything kept her from remembering just how sad and lonely she was. The vlogs she made didn’t help much either. While some saw her videos as what they were intended to be; a way to help other moms get through the trials and tribulations that motherhood brought, others saw it as a way for Stephanie to show off, something bordering on condescension.

Stephanie Smothers was the friendliest person you could meet, and yet the thing she craved most in her life was real, true friendship. Someone to love her despite her dark side.

Emily Nelson was the very last person Stephanie thought she’d become friends with.

For the first couple of months of Miles’ school life Emily had barely even been seen in the flesh. The few things she’d heard of her from the other parents hadn’t been all that great (“I heard her say the ‘F’ word in the playground once! Who knows what would have happened had one of the children heard!”; “That woman cares more about her appearance than anything else. I don’t think she eats.”; “You’ll never find her at a PTA meeting, she attends nothing that doesn’t serve Gin.”) and the rest from her son’s best friend, Nicky’s, mouth (“My mommy doesn’t like coming to the school, she says the other kids give her headaches.”; “My mommy wears clothes just like Mr Allen!”; “I like it when Mommy drives. She goes faster than Daddy does. Waayyyyyyy faster!”).

From the bits and pieces she’d heard, Stephanie had managed to deduce only two things about the enigma that was Emily Nelson; she was beautiful, and she was a horrible mother.

With their very first encounter, Stephanie started to doubt the only two things she thought she knew.

Emily wasn’t beautiful. There wasn’t a word quite fitting enough to describe the kind of beauty Emily possessed. Calling her beautiful would be a gross understatement. The woman radiated something otherworldly. She didn’t quite belong here, more suited to a chic, sleek Hollywood movie than this small town. Stephanie felt the energy she emanated the very second she’d stepped out of her car like a jolt. The way she walked with effortless grace through the wind and rain, one hand in the pocket of her pin-striped navy suit and her hair flowing perfectly in the wind. The kind of way they did in the movies. The kind of way that made everyone in her vicinity stop and stare.

The kind of way Stephanie could never quite pull off.

Emily wasn’t a bad mother, either. Not perfect, no, but not _bad_ like everyone seemed to suggest. There was no distinctive proof of this, but from the moment Nicky went running into her arms she just knew. Emily may not be the kind of mom that bakes cookies for school bake sales or shows up to PTA meetings, but her little boy obviously adored her and she him, and in the end that was all that really mattered.

That day was the first in which Emily had surprised her, and the surprise lay not only in the way Emily was, but in the way Emily made her feel. Stephanie was entranced by her in a way she hadn’t been with anyone else before. She was completely in awe of her and filled with a sudden and intense need to be this woman’s friend, and somehow that’s exactly what they became. They became friends who hung out and shared confessions and drank martinis while their children played together upstairs.

Emily became the very first person able to entice her deepest secrets from her lips (although the gin also played a starring role in that). Emily became the first person since her brother and husband had died to see Stephanie with her guard completely down.

And then The Kiss happened. In the midst of pouring her heart out, Emily kissed her, and oh what a kiss it was.

It was unexpected, completely out of the blue and not at all the way in which a friend would comfort a crying friend. Even best friends don’t kiss like that. 

And yet it somehow felt like _exactly_ the way they would comfort each other. It felt comfortable enough for Stephanie not to flinch, to instead lean into it like they had done it one million times before.

The thing is, Stephanie and Emily didn’t have a regular friendship. On the outside it seemed like they did, like they were just two mothers bonding on their children’s playdate, but there had always been something different between them. A certain charged energy, the forbidden kind, the kind that just shouldn’t be there that she’d only ever felt with her brother.

The dangerous kind.

Emily made her blush. Emily flustered her, made it difficult for her to say or do something that wasn’t completely embarrassing. The first time she’d spoken to her, her heart had skipped a beat and since then it’s skipped many more. It was like she had a crush on her, a silly adolescent crush, but it wasn’t that. It couldn’t be that.

Instead, Stephanie told herself this thing she felt was one borne of admiration. She admired the way she dressed; the figure she had; her hair; the confidence. She wasn’t attracted to her, of course not, she wished she could _be_ her, that was all. She wasn’t lusting after her married friend, she just wished she was the type of person who could pull off a three-piece suit, tell her boss to fuck off and live in a house as gorgeous as hers.

Stephanie wanted to be her, she didn’t want to be _with_ her.

That was all.

This admiration was why she felt like a schoolgirl with a crush when she was around her. It was the reason why when she went to collect her son from school she hoped almost desperately that Emily would be there too. That was why she had such a deep need to be her friend; to be invited around to her home for martinis; to dance in her kitchen to that smooth French music she liked.

Admiration. Plain and simple.

The admiration didn’t explain why her heart raced when she saw her, or the warm feeling she got in her gut when Emily laughed. The way she had to catch her breath when Emily had stripped off her sleeveless shirt or why she had that strange, awkward response to Emily telling her she’d once spent the night with a woman (how embarrassing!).

It didn’t explain why she had this playful need to keep apologising to her for nothing in particular, just so she would tell her off for it.

Yes, there was certainly an energy between them. An energy that she assumed was one sided. This, she figured, was the way Emily acted around everyone she met and the way she felt around her was all her own doing.

It hadn’t ever crossed her mind that Emily was interested in her. Sure, she could be a bit flirty sometimes, she’d often throw her a look that Stephanie could almost feel some desire through and there was something… just s _omething_ about the way she’d stripped off her sleeveless shirt that very first day that felt almost suggestive. Hell, almost _everything_ she did felt suggestive in some way or another.

But it had been a long time since Stephanie had really flirted with anyone, so perhaps she’d gotten it wrong. Emily might have had female sexual endeavours in the past but that in no way meant she was planning or even considered having them with her.

That wasn’t what she wanted either. Stephanie wasn’t gay or even bisexual. Stephanie had only ever been with men and had no desire to try anything else. Not even in college.

This didn’t change the fact though, that friends don’t kiss like that. Friends hug when one of them is upset. Friends talk it through and let their friend cry on their shoulder.

Friends don’t kiss, and Emily had kissed her.

And surprisingly (or not) Stephanie enjoyed it.

_God_ , did she enjoy it.

The casualness of it had surprised her. The way Emily had done it and acted as if this was the done thing. Even offering her pizza afterwards. Who _does_ that? Only Emily.

It wasn’t just the kiss either, it was the way she touched her. Their skin had never really met until then and all of a sudden Emily was cupping her face with her impossibly soft hands. Wiping away her tears with the kind of gentleness only a mother could have. That touch sent her skin ablaze.

“I’m so embarrassed,” she’d said with the taste of her still on her lips, trying her best to laugh it off, but Emily just smiled.

“It’s all good, baby.”

_Baby._

Who would have thought one word could have such an effect on her? Did she call everyone that, or was this a pet name reserved for her and her husband?

_Husband._

That’s when the panic set in and Stephanie’s mind was spinning with the fact she’d just kissed a married woman. She’d kissed her married best friend.

Spinning more with the overwhelming urge to do it again.

“No need for pizza,” she said with a smile, trying to sound as casual as possible. She stood up, flattened down her skirt and walked toward the kitchen. “I’ll cook!” It was too enthusiastic, she knew it as soon as the words came out of her mouth.

“Even better.” Emily slipped off the couch, picked up her martini and shrugged the grey blazer off her shoulders in one smooth motion to follow her to the kitchen. Calm and collected as ever. As if this type of thing happened every Tuesday. Who knows, maybe it did. With Emily anything was possible.

In an attempt to mirror Emily’s coolness, Stephanie busied herself in the kitchen, but it was hard to keep up that appearance with Emily’s gaze fixed on her over the top of her martini glass. Stephanie almost wished she would disappear for a few minutes, just long enough for her to regain some sort of control. Just so she could take a second to breathe.

“Why did you kiss me?” Stephanie blurted out, half annoyed at her for bringing this awkwardness to their friendship and half curious as to whether she planned on doing it again.

She knew which one she hoped it would be.

“Because I wanted to.” Emily replied in the same soft tone she usually spoke in. For a woman known for being tough and often cold, her voice was always deceptively gentle and almost soothing. It made her coldest remarks seem even more biting.

“That’s it? Because you wanted to?”

“Yeah.”

“But you can’t just- Friend’s don’t- I’ve never done this, I’ve never...” Although she knew she was confusing and disjointed, pacing back and forth, opening the fridge and cupboards for the ingredients to the dish she was going to make when she hadn’t even decided what that was, looking like some sort of crazy person - the furthest thing from the composed one she wanted to be, the word vomit wouldn’t stop, “I’ve never kissed another woman before and- I mean, I know it’s maybe not such a big deal for you what with that whole thing you had with Sean’s TA. Which is.. cool. Super cool. For you. And for him. And for her, too, obviously, but this is-“

“Okay sweetie, you need to calm the fuck down. It was a kiss, it’s not like I just fucked you blind on the couch. We’ll start off slow, you know, save something for next time.”

At Emily’s teasing grin and a wink, Stephanie nearly died right there and then.

“I’m kidding!” Emily said at the expression on Stephanie’s face, and laughed. She was enjoying this. “My God, baby, one hint of some action and you’re wound tighter than a nun’s pussy. Finish your drink. _Relax_.”

There was something in the commanding way she said it actually helped Stephanie to chill out a little. With a small laugh she held her face in her hands for a moment and then shook it off. “You’re right, I’m s-“ the word was cut off by the glaring look Emily shot at her, “I’m _not_ sorry,” she smiled, “I’m just overwhelmed by it all, really. Talking about Chris and Davis and then _that_ happening it’s all,” Stephanie shook her hands at either side of her head, “blahh-ahhh-aahhh.”

With a sympathetic look, Emily casually said, “I know, baby. You need a good fuck, that’s all. It’ll clear your head.”

_I need_ you  _to fuck me._

The sentence was so clear in her head Stephanie thought for a split second she’d actually said it. Even saying it in her head made her blush and she could swear Emily sensed what she’d just thought by the way she was staring at her.

Stephanie surrendered to making dinner. Foolish to think she’d be able to focus on cooking after what had happened. Emily called for takeout pizza and Stephanie fixed herself a brand new drink.

The kids came down and they ate together when the food arrived and then in a flash they were gone again. Stephanie felt a pang of guilt at the new type of parent she was becoming. Drinking in the afternoon while her child played upstairs. She should be paying more attention to him. She shouldn’t be kissing her best friend. _Married_ best friend.

That wasn’t going to happen though, was it? Stephanie and Emily gravitated towards each other the way magnets do. Positive and negative. Destined to meet. A tired cliché but one none-the-less true.

Emily was a little more drunk now, a little more dishevelled. Sleeves rolled up, tie loose and the first few buttons of her shirt undone showing off her slender neck. Stephanie couldn’t help but glance at the dent her clavicle made and wonder what it would be like to kiss her right there, transferring that sweet scent of her perfume to her lips.

Stephanie was a little more drunk now, too. A little less uptight. They sat side-by-side at the kitchen island, facing each other with a half empty bottle of gin sitting on the table between them. Sitting so close that their knees clashed every now and then, but frustratingly not close enough.

Stephanie couldn’t decide, as she listened to Emily tell her a story about how she’d snuck out of camp once as a kid to go smoke weed in the woods with her friends, whether Emily looked sexier like this, rough around the edges, or pristinely perfect, like the way she is when she’s just finished work without a hair out of place.

Stephanie also couldn’t quite figure out when these sorts of thoughts started and, more importantly, when they became ones she accepted and deliberated over. Maybe they’d always been there and only now, after feeling the sweet sensation of Emily’s lips on hers (and with a little help from their friend called Gin) did she stop fighting them.

Emily Nelson; her best friend, Nicky’s mother, Sean’s wife, and by the time Stephanie got home later that night, by the time she’d tucked her sweet prince into bed and gotten herself into her own, she’d bowed down to the overwhelming notion that Emily Nelson would soon be her lover.

Because friends don't kiss like that.

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty long and doesn't include the stuff I was gonna put in it *cough* smut *cough*. That'll have to come next. I got carried away with just writing them being together and doing stuff, they are just super fun to write I couldn't stop, but I hope ya all like it anyway!

Friends don’t kiss like they had.

Another thing friends don’t do? They don’t have sex in bathroom cubicles. Whatever Stephanie and Emily were, they definitely weren’t friends…

* * *

 

“Stephanie!”

Stephanie looked over her shoulder while zipping up her son’s jacket to see Emily standing at her car, an elbow resting on the open door of the slick black Porsche.

“You’re coming with me. We’re going out.”

“Well ‘hello’ to you to!” Stephanie joked, but by the blank look Emily gave her, she wasn’t in the mood for jokes.

“Nicky!” She shouted, “Move it before mommy gets hypothermia.”

Little Nicky sprinted over to his mom so fast that Stephanie had to hold back on telling him to slow down.

“Hey Steph, did I stutter?” Emily’s tone was curt and cold, but that wasn’t unusual. “Follow me home.”

There was a miniscule part of her that wanted to say no just so that Emily wouldn’t believe that she never had anything better to do than to follow her every whim. ‘ _No, Emily, I can’t come with you because I have to go to this place to meet this other person I’m friends with. You’re not the only person in my life you know!’_ but of course, she didn’t have much else to do. Nothing worth turning Emily down for anyway. Her vlog for this week was done and there was only one pile of laundry sitting at home. That could wait.

“C’mon, Smooch! You’re getting a playdate with Nicky today!”

“Yay!” The little boy celebrated, jumping up and down.

“Let’s go!” Stephanie took her son’s hand and led him hurriedly (but carefully) across the car park to her car, one decidedly less sparkly and cool as Emily’s.

When Stephanie entered Emily’s home she was always filled with the same sense of anticipation. That feeling only grew with each visit, like something inside her knew what would eventually happen here and every time she walked through her hallway, each time she sat on her sofa and sipped on one of her expertly made drinks, she was one step closer to it.

“Sean’s looking after the kids tonight.” Emily said as she threw off her silky, light pink suit jacket and shook her hair out from its twisted knot. “We’re going out.”

This was new.

“Um... okay? Where are we going?”

“I don’t fucking know.” Emily unclipped the waistcoat of the same colour as the blazer, loosened the shining silver tie and released the first couple of buttons of her shirt. “I just need to get out of here tonight.”

“Are you okay? Did- did you and Sean have a fight?” Briefly she wondered if _she_ might be the reason for whatever fight they might have had but realised quickly if she were, he wouldn’t be offering to take care of her kid for the night while she went out with his wife.

Emily didn’t answer right away. For what felt like the longest time she just looked at Stephanie, taking her in, thinking about it, as if she had nothing to say to her or too much to choose from. Eventually a light curl of a smile appeared at the corner of her mouth and she said, “I just need to hit the reset button extra hard tonight, baby. It’s been a long week.”

Just like that the hard edges of her seemed to curve and soften. 

“I understand.” She didn’t really, but knew at least that being a mom and a wife and the head of PR at such a massive company couldn’t be easy. She was finding it hard enough just being a mom. “Sit down, I’ll make you a martini.”

“Ooh, careful.”

The ‘ooh’ sounded so close to a moan that Stephanie felt almost winded by it.

“Keep saying things like that you’re gonna make me fall in love with you.”

Stephanie stumbled over her feet walking to the fridge and let out a very forced laugh. “Ha! Haha! Fall in love with me.” Her face scrunched up,  “That would be funny. L-O-L!”

“Did you just _say_ L-O-L?” Emily laughed, walking to Stephanie who was pulling two frozen glasses and the bottle of gin from the freezer. “God you’re such a dork. Remind me again why we’re friends?”

“Because I make you martinis and take care of your kid.” Stephanie said brightly as she kicked the freezer door shut with her heel. “Not to mention I happen to make the best beaded jewellery in the whole of Warfield.” She tipped her head in a sort-of bow and said, “You’re welcome.”

Emily let out a soft chuckle at that as she took another step towards Stephanie.

And then another.

And another.

Next thing she knew, Emily was right in front of her. One hand casually in her pocket and the other reaching up to touch her jawline. “Aren’t I lucky.” She murmured, before gently kissing her. So gentle it seemed that Emily’s lips hovered over hers for a moment before touching them. Before they closed themselves over her bottom lip and held on.

While her hands froze from holding the two ice cold martini glasses in one hand and the gin in the other, the rest on her was set on her fire.

Was this how it was now? They just kissed each other without warning? Without reason?

It wasn’t that she was complaining but shouldn’t there be some sort of discussion first? Some acknowledgement of whatever it was they were doing?

But Emily didn’t seem the type to welcome the ‘what are we? Can we define us?’ talk and certainly not today.

When Emily broke the frustratingly tender kiss, Stephanie tried to lean forward for more but was hindered by the tip of Emily’s long index finger that pressed against her lips.

Emily smiled at her, catching the mix of desire and lust in her eyes. “That’s enough for now.”

_For now!_

“I’m going upstairs, I’ll be back in a minute.”

With that Emily clip-clopped in her expensive high heeled shoes up the stairs and Stephanie finally took in a long, shaken breath.

What the fuck was going on! What she dreaming? She had to be because there was no way Emily had just invited her over, kissed her and implied there was more to come. This kind of thing didn’t happen to people like her.

Composure eventually resumed, Stephanie made one drink, threw it back in three or four mouthfuls (just like Emily had taught her) and then made two more. If tonight was going to go the way she thought it was, plenty of Dutch courage was needed.

This was uncharted territory.

When Emily returned a couple of minutes later, it was with a dress on a hanger, covered with a clear protective sheet.

“Is that your dress for tonight?” Stephanie asked, bringing Emily over her martini as she draped the dress over the back of the sofa.

“No,” she said, taking the glass from her, pleasantly humming at her first sip, “It’s for you.”

“For me?”

“Yeah. If you’re coming out with me you can’t wear that. It’s too mumsy, too… uninspiring.”

“Oh, thanks.” Her words were dripping with sarcasm and she felt suddenly self-conscious about the flower pattered collared dress she was wearing.

“Don’t do that. Don’t get offended. It’s your style, it’s fine. It’s cute, but tonight is not about cute. It’s about embracing your sexiness. It’s about owning it and showing it off and _this_ dress will do that.”

“I thought tonight was about hitting the reset button. Hard.”

Emily tilted her glass towards her, “that too. The two are not mutually exclusive. If you don’t like this dress it’s fine, there’s plenty more upstairs that you can choose from, but I think this one will look good on you.”

She did like the dress. It was a gorgeous deep shade of purple, looked to be about knee height and form fitting. The thing is she’d much rather see Emily in it than herself. If she’d had more to drink she might have been brave enough to tell her that.

The front door opened, and Sean’s voice could be heard from down the hallway calling out, “I’m home!”

“Looks like our babysitter is here. Hey, baby.” Emily turned to her husband, threw an arm around his neck and kissed him.

It was like being punched in the chest. A sobering reminder that whatever fantasy she may have played out in her head, Emily wasn’t hers. Not that she was _anyone’s_. Stephanie figured Emily was the type that wouldn’t take kindly to being classed as someone else’s, but that didn’t change the fact that she was married. She had a kid with this guy. She loved him. Stephanie was just something she played with on the side.

It was hard to watch Emily as she spoke and kissed her husband. Telling him (for the first time, she realised) that he was babysitting for the night. But she had to act like this didn’t bother her, so she sipped awkwardly on her drink, looked at the dress she was wearing for the night and waited for it to be over.

Emily eventually let her husband go and curled her finger at Stephanie, “come on, you’re coming with me.”

“Ooh! Where are we going?”

“Upstairs. Bring the dress.”

Ever obedient, Stephanie followed her up the stairs, smiling politely at Sean as she walked past him.

On the way to Emily’s room, Stephanie popped into Nicky’s and explained what was happening tonight to her son. He was, predictably, over the moon at the unexpected sleepover.

Emily’s room was magnificent, as she expected it would be. The room was decorated with the same minimalistic design as downstairs; the huge bed and walls were neutral in colour, giving nothing away, the only colour splashed across the room came in the form of the obscure hanging art on the walls. The place was immaculate. Like it hadn’t been touched. Hadn’t been lived in.

Stephanie entered the room just in time to see Emily’s shirtless back walk into her closet and (disappointingly) close the door behind her. Painfully aware that Emily was behind that door stripping down to nothing and changing into something else, Stephanie kept busy by getting changed herself.

The dress Emily had picked out was beyond perfect. Not at all something she would have picked for herself but that only seemed to add to the wonder of it. It was an almost perfect fit, too. A little too tight in places, a little too loose in others and hung below the point where it was probably designed to go due to the height difference between them, at a few inches below the knees, but mostly it was fine.

Stephanie was half zipped up when Emily came back, fully dressed in a magnificent black off-the-shoulder number that split an awful long way up those impossibly long legs of hers. The breath caught in Stephanie’s throat. She’d never seen this much of her skin before, always hidden beneath those expensive suits.

“Let me get that,” she said, the hint of a smile on her lips that suggested she knew what kind of effect seeing her in that dress did to her.

Stephanie nearly wished she hadn’t offered to zip her up. It was intoxicating having her so close; having her hand on her back, her breath and her lips dangerously close to her neck.

“Turn around. Let me see it on you.”

Stephanie did as she was asked and turned, instantly self-conscious at having Emily’s scrutinizing gaze on her. She was so hard to read. Her expression gave nothing away.

“I like it.”

“I like you.” She grimaced and shook her head, “I mean, yours. I like yours. Too.” Stephanie let out a nervous trickle of laughter, put one hand awkwardly on her waist and the other to her head, “Sorry I’m just-"

“You’re what?”

A flame erupted in her gut at the stern look on Emily’s face. Who would have thought being told off could feel so good.

“Right, oopsie, I’m not.” She tried to smile and ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t know why I’m so nervous and weird right now.”

“You’re always weird.”

Stephanie chose to ignore that. “I haven’t been out or got properly dressed up in a long time. A _long_ time.”

“You should do it more often. It suits you.” Emily smiled, one of those sweet ones that don’t show very often. Stephanie smiled back. Started to relax again. “We just gotta get you out of those little fox socks. There’s no way you’re wearing those.”

Shoes were chosen; kids were wished good night and told (by Stephanie) to behave for Sean while they were gone, and then, another martini later, Stephanie and Emily were in the back seat of an Über heading into the city.

The place Emily took them to was exactly the kind of place you’d expect her to go to. From the street you’d hardly know it was there and Stephanie suspected very few people did. The people inside were all dressed in expensive suits and dresses, and a few of them danced on the floor space between the stage and the small round tables dotted around. A jazz band was playing, each member dressed in expensive suits and the lights dimmed just low enough to create an almost sensual atmosphere.

At first she felt a little out of place. While she’d always dreamed of being the kind of person sophisticated enough to frequent a place like this, she never had been and certainly wasn’t now. It took a few drinks for that feeling to fade.

“So, why are we here tonight?”

“Hm?”

“What’s been going on that made you need to hit that button so hard?”

“Oh, I just needed to get out.” She said, waving off the question as if it were unimportant.

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Dismiss my question. I’m always the one spilling my guts to you, I think it’s about time you let me in for a change. What are _your_ secrets, Emily?” She didn’t mean it to come out quite as flirty as it had.

“Oh, baby, trust me, you don’t wanna know my secrets.”

“Yes, I do.”

“You wouldn’t like me anymore.”

“I don’t think there’s much that could stop me liking you.”

She stared at her. Stared hard with those icy blue eyes like she was trying to figure out if she really meant that.

It felt like forever before she said, “fine, I’ll tell you one thing; I’m exhausted. Exhausted with work, with being a mom, with being a wife. Sometimes I think it would just be so easy to take Nicky and disappear. I hate my job right now. I hate the people I work with. Sean is driving me crazy because he does fucking nothing. The only person I like to see at the end the day is Nicky… and you.”

“Me?”

She nodded, “You’re sweet, Stephanie. You make me bracelets and tell me I’m doing a good job as a mom. No-one says that shit to me. You make the day seem less shitty.” She smiled. A small smile. Almost shy. And then, as if suddenly remembering who she was and what she had just said, she sipped on her drink and added, “Plus when I’m with you I’m reminded that you fucked your brother and that makes my problems seem less crazy.”

“Shhh!” Stephanie demanded, thrashing her head around to make sure no one was close enough to hear that. Emily thought it was hilarious.

Despite what she had just said, it was nice to see her opening up a little. Even if it was just a little. Stephanie had no doubt there was so much more she didn’t know about Emily, but that was part of the fun of knowing her. You just never knew what she’d surprise you with next.

“You know, this place is great and all,” Stephanie said a few drinks later, “it’s lovely, but I thought you wanted to come out tonight to give that reset button a good ol’ whack.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that this place is a little too… demure for that. You can’t let loose here.”

Emily raised an eyebrow and took a sip of her drink. “You got somewhere else in mind, brotherfucker?”

“Stop calling me that!” Stephanie’s head thrashed around again, nearly exactly as it had before, “Especially in public! Someone might hear you.”

Emily laughed, one of those pure, sincere laughs that Stephanie liked the best. The kind she’d heard a lot of tonight.

“And no, I don’t have somewhere in mind. I don’t know this city, but I’m sure we could find somewhere.”

“Oh, I’m sure we could.”

Outside, they hopped into a cab, Stephanie searched on Google maps for nearby bars and picked one at random.

“Really? ‘The Hole in the Wall’?” Emily didn’t sound impressed. “Sounds… charming.”

“It’s an Irish bar, apparently. You’re guaranteed to have a good time in an Irish bar.”

“Alright, if you say so.”

It didn’t take long for them to get there, and when they did Stephanie started to wonder if Emily’s trepidation about her choice of bar had in fact been warranted. It didn’t look like much from the outside (but then, neither did the other place), the sign above the door looked a little ramshackled and inside sounded rowdy with the cheers of the drinkers and the whistles, strumming and thumps of the traditional Irish band playing.

They were overdressed, to say the least. Their entrance gained more than a few looks from the rest of the people there, but it wasn’t long before everyone else stopped paying attention to them and started dancing, or talking, or drinking, again.

They didn’t sell martinis here and that pissed Emily off for a minute, but she settled for a glass of expensive whiskey (without ice) instead. The place was actually quite big although it was so full it didn’t look it, crammed with tables that were all gathered at one side to make more room for dancing. Around the corner were some gambling machines and a couple of pool tables.

“Wanna play?” Stephanie asked.

“How could I resist?” Emily sarcastically replied. “First you take me from the beautiful place we were in and bring me to this stuffy, overcrowded bar and then you offer a game of _pool_?” She sucked her teeth and shook her head, “You really know how to impress a girl, baby, I’ll give you that.”

Stephanie rolled her eyes, but playfully. Unable to stop herself from smiling anytime Emily called her that. “Oh, shut up. Stop complaining and play.”

“Ooh, bossy.” She crooned, “I like it.”

They played and Stephanie won, which Emily wasn’t happy about so they ordered another round of drinks and played again.

“That guy over there’s checking you out.” Emily said, just as Stephanie finished her turn and watched the ball stop just short of going in the hole.

“What? No he’s not.”

“Yes, he is.” Emily insisted with a cheeky look on her face.

Stephanie dismissed her with a wave, “He’s probably looking at you.” That’s what  _she’d_ been doing anyway. If there _was_ some guy checking her out, she hadn’t taken her eyes off of Emily long enough to notice. And she didn’t care if he was either.

“Why don’t you go talk to him?”

Stephanie felt this weird sense of disappointment then. If Emily wanted her to talk to someone else, that meant she was perfectly fine with her doing it. That meant… well, that meant she wasn’t interested in her. Which didn’t make sense because she’d been so flirty, she’d made it nearly obvious that she interested in her as more than a friend. She’d kissed her only hours ago!

“No, I don’t want to.”

Emily shrugged her shoulders, took a drink and then lined up her cue with the ball. “Fair enough. But you’re gonna have to get back in the game at some point.” Emily pulled the cue back and slid it through to hit the white ball with a firm clack. It bounced off the far edge and then slowed to a crawl before just tipping the red ball into the hole. “Ha ha! Yes!” Her hands flew up in celebration as if she’d just won the game when she was actually still two points down. One more sip of her drink and she circled the table, one finger lightly touching the edge as she walked, eyeing up her next target.

“When _was_ the last time you had sex?”

The bluntness of the question jolted her for a second but that quickly faded. She’d become used to it. “I actually can’t remember.”

“You can’t?”

“It was a couple years ago, I know that. I don’t know, I never thought that the last time I had sex with Davis _would be_ the last time, so it never really stuck.”

“You haven’t been with anyone since him?”

“No. I’ve done _stuff_ , but…” she shook her head, “No.”

“Don’t you miss it?”

“Uh, I guess? Yeah.”

“You _guess_?”

“Yeah, I mean, I miss the closeness more than anything. The actual _act_ of sex," Stephanie shrugged, "most of that I can do myself.”

Emily’s eyebrow lifted at that. She’d surprised her.

“But I miss the intimacy of it. Like you know that moment just after, where you just collapse into each others arms and lie there for a bit? I miss that. I think it’s the most intimate part of it all.”

“Oh my god,” Emily laughed, “you’re a _cuddler_! I shoulda guessed.”

“Of course! Aren’t you?”

“Fuck, no.”

“Shut up.” Stephanie was shocked. She’d honestly assumed that’s what everyone done afterwards. It seemed so cold not to. “So, what do you do after sex? Roll over and go to sleep?”

“Got it in one, babygirl.” Emily aimed again and putted another ball with ease.

“Why?”

“Never liked it. I’m hot and sweaty the last thing I want is another hot, sweaty body clinging to me.”

“That’s a… unique way to think of it.”

“The only person I cuddle is my son.”

“Oh… well… He’s a lucky kid.” Stephanie took a sip of her drink and held Emily’s gaze. It was starting to feel hotter in here and she was pretty sure the temperature of the room had nothing to do with it.

It was enough to slip Emily up and she missed her next shot. She missed a few after that too.

“Fuck this,” Emily said after losing again, throwing her cue on the table, “let’s go dance.”

A different band was playing now, something distinctly more ‘pop’-like. A young blonde with a band covering the latest hit songs.

Emily, who before looked a bit out of place and now looked completely at home, easily pushed her way into the middle of the crowd and there the girls started to dance.

Her mind was a little fuzzy and her step a little more like a stumble, but if there was one thing Stephanie was confident about, it was her dancing. She’d always had good rhythm and while she hadn’t danced much lately, she still knew how to drive people crazy with the roll of her hips. 

Emily knew how to do that too. It almost threw her off, watching the way Emily’s hips moved, the way her hair danced in its waves around her shoulders, the way her eyes sparkled in Stephanie’s direction.

This was a game she could play, though, and she played it well. Stephanie burned a stare right back at her as she threw an arm up over her head and swung her whole body in time to the beat, with her other hand inching her long dress up her leg as she moved. And then, in a move she surprised herself with, she put her arm over Emily’s shoulder, pushed her body in close and swayed against her. By the smile on her face she knew Emily approved of this development.

Some people were looking at the two stunning girls in the fancy dresses clinging to each other, but she didn’t care, neither of them did.

For the next song, and the song after that, they stayed on the dancefloor. Dancing close together and far apart but for the whole of it, dancing with an eye on each other. Dancing in a way that, at times, felt so sexual it was almost foreplay. 

By the time they got out of the crowd and headed back to the bar, they were both gleaming with a layer of sweat, for so many reasons.

“Two tequilas.” Emily ordered and then leaned into Stephanie’s ear, so close her lips grazed her skin as she spoke, “You can certainly move, baby.”

Before Emily could pull away Stephanie answered, “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

Face to face again, Emily gently bit on and then licked her lips and, had the barman not interrupted them by delivering their shots with a slice of lime sitting on top and a shaker of salt beside it, Stephanie was sure they would have kissed again.

“Here,” she said, handing Stephanie the salt. “Lick your wrist and shake this on.”

“I know how to take a shot of tequila, you know.”

“You’re just full of surprises tonight, huh?” It was playful, but it was suggestive too.

Stephanie licked her wrist and Emily licked hers. Emily shook the salt over both of their wrists and then picked the limes off the glass.

“You lick mine and I’ll lick yours.” Emily said, holding her wrist out to Stephanie.

Her heartbeat skipped, and she smiled as if it were no big deal. Playing it cool like Emily so often does. “Okay.”

“One, two, three, go!”

On cue the girls licked each others wrists, the feeling of Emily’s hot, wet tongue on her skin was just as pleasing as tasting hers. They downed their shots of alcohol next, but just as Stephanie went to grab her lime for the sharp hit of citrus she needed to cut through the burn of the alcohol, she realised it wasn’t there.

“Where’s my-“

It was between Emily’s teeth and she was smirking at her. “Come get it.” She purred and sucked the whole thing into her mouth.

 _‘Holy shit,’_ was the only thing that ran through Stephanie’s head before she crashed into her. Kissed her hard and openly, her tongue slipping quickly into the warmth of Emily’s mouth to help suck the lime out of it.

Once she had it she spat it into her empty glass and went straight back to Emily for more. A long, deep kiss that she had been waiting all night for. A kiss that tasted of lime and salt and alcohol. A kiss that was so much better than every other one they’d had and a kiss that she wished never ended.

But of course it had to, and after a brief, hot glance at each other Emily was at her ear again, her breath tickling her neck. “Meet me in the bathroom in twenty seconds.” She said, her voice low and husky. Turned on. Her fingertips trailed across her cheek as she pulled away, “Knock twice.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two things; One, this tequila-lime-kiss thing was partially stolen from a scene in The Big Bang Theory (Leonard and Penny for life, yo) and I didn't realise I was even gonna put it in here until it just happened.
> 
> Two, The Hole in the Wall is an actual pub in Galway that I have visited. For some reason no other pub name would come to me so I stuck that in there! 
> 
> Oh and the next chapter is gonna be fuuuunnnnnnnn. ;)


	3. Chapter 3

Stephanie didn’t react right away. It took her a second - a few, actually - to process what had happened and what was about to happen.

She’d had quite a bit to drink and that helped with the swarm of butterflies in her stomach, but only a little. It was still intimidating. She was still nervous.

There was no doubt that Emily was going to be better at this than her.

It had been so long since she’d been with someone, and she’d _never_ been with a woman. All she could think of was whether or not she’d be any good. What if she was a disappointment? What if she didn’t know what to do, or how to do it _well_?

This was brand new territory. Instinct was all she had to guide her through what was about to happen. She was out of her depth.

But she forced herself to stop thinking about that and started thinking about the gorgeous woman waiting for her. She stopped listening to whatever part of her it was that was wondering about all the ways that this could go wrong and started following her most basic urges. She started remembering all the things Emily had made her feel since the day they met and how this was _exactly_ what she wanted.

Stephanie straightened up. Fluffed out her hair, gulped down the last of her drink and took a deep breath before walking towards the bathroom.

A couple of women were washing their hands when she got there. Laughing and touching up their lipstick. The single closed cubicle in a row of four looked so normal, so innocent. Those two girls had no idea someone was in there waiting in there for her. Those two girls had no idea what was going to happen behind that single door, but Stephanie did, and it seemed to her like that black door, that normal, innocent black door, was three times the size of the others. Full to the brim with all the expectation that lay behind it.

Stephanie stood at the sink and looked in the mirror while the two girls finished what they were doing. As much to give herself a moment to prepare as it was to stop them seeing her walk into an occupied cubicle. She may be about to get fucked in a bathroom, but she still had _some_ decorum.

As soon as the girls left and the door closed behind them, leaving nothing but a thumping bass from the band to echo through the room, Stephanie knocked twice on that door.

It had barely opened and Emily had pulled Stephanie inside.

“What the _fuck_ took you so long?”

Emily’s lips latched onto Stephanie’s so quickly she didn’t have a chance to answer (not that Emily actually expected one anyway) and a second later she was pinned against the door she’d just walked through.

It turned out there’d been no need for nerves. As soon as she and Emily were alone everything flowed as if they’d been doing this forever.

It felt so natural having Emily’s hands tightly grip her waist, pulling Stephanie’s hip tight against hers.

It felt so natural to have her hands in Emily’s hair. Her fingers winding their way through those perfect waves to glide gently over her scalp.

It felt so natural to have Emily’s tongue in her mouth, expertly exploring and massaging against her own.

The way they kissed was ferocious and fast, (exactly as expected for two people making out in a bathroom cubicle) Stephanie’s hands rushed over Emily’s shoulders and arms, into her waist and up to cup around her breasts. Relishing in the chance to finally touch her wherever she liked. To feel how soft her skin was, to feel the hard muscles in her arms, to bathe in her heat.

This kiss was completely unlike the last time. There was none of the softness of before. Nothing about this was gentle.

It was rough. It was messy. There was pushing, biting and sucking. Emily ravaged Stephanie’s lips like she’d been starved of them. Like her lips were oxygen and she had been suffocating. Like she were the first breath of air she desperately gulped into her lungs.

When their lips eventually parted Stephanie flung her head back against the door and tugged gently at Emily’s hair while she kissed her way over her jawline. Down her neck. Across her collarbone. Alternating between a kiss, a brush of her tongue and a teasing bite.

It’d been a long time since Stephanie had been kissed like that and she couldn’t keep her appreciation to herself.

“Oh my _God_ ,” she moaned, loudly and accidentally, eyes closed, teeth scraping her lip. All inhibition had been lost in those kisses, and by the way Emily bit at her skin, rocked her hips into hers and slid her hand over her ass, she figured Emily approved of Stephanie’s vocal appreciation.

One leg wrapped itself around Emily’s waist. Arms wound themselves around her neck, pulling her as close as possible.

It was intoxicating having Emily’s hard body pressed so tightly against hers. Being able to feel the curve of her breast, the brush of her bare leg and the thrust of her hip… she was transported somewhere else. This wasn’t the bathroom stall of a rowdy bar, this was heaven.

Emily ran a hand across Stephanie’s thigh. The one wrapped across her waist. Her commanding touch slid all the way up and under her dress until it reached her underwear.

Stephanie thought then that there was no better place to be than pressed against a door by Emily’s body. Having her pull her dress up to her waist and tease at her lacy black thong, tugging at it, playing with it, like she hadn’t decided whether to pull them off her yet or not. 

Emily pressed her long thigh hard between her legs and Stephanie whimpered. A cry of pure lust and desperation. She instinctively pushed and rocked into it. Desperate for the friction. Desperate for the sheer bliss it brought. 

It was explicitly filthy. Nothing like anything she’d ever experienced. Dripping wet with desire while grinding on her friend’s leg. (They definitely couldn’t be classed as ‘friends’ anymore, could they? Friends don’t do _this_.) 

In a public bathroom.

It was raw, and it was dirty, but it was incredible.

A shiver danced up her spine and she hummed a moan as Emily said, lips against the skin just below her ear, “You’re louder than I expected,” she nipped her earlobe with her teeth, flicked it with her tongue, “I like it.”

There was a lazy sort of smile on Emily’s face, like she wanted to grin but the rest of her body was too full with something else to really do it properly. Her eyes were heavy and dark, her lips red and swollen, her chest pumping up and down, cheeks flushed, hair perfectly messy.

Emily was just as turned on as she was. She was trying to hide it, but she was.

It was to be expected given the situation but none-the-less it was a revelation. Emily; the bold, the infallible and ever mysterious, was turned on by plain old Stephanie. Vlog mom. Wearer of animal themed socks.

It was empowering.

Full to the brim with a brand-new confidence, Stephanie held Emily’s face in her hands, kissed her hard on the lips and whispered, “you haven’t seen anything yet.”

Stephanie unwrapped her leg from Emily’s waist and pushed her backwards until she landed on the toilet seat (which, thankfully, Emily had already closed or else that moment could have gone much differently).

“Wow.” Emily said, sounding somewhere between amused and impressed.  

“Shhh.”

Stephanie kissed her again, braced herself with hands on each of her shoulders and straddled her. Emily bit down hard on Stephanie’s lip and gave her ass a firm squeeze, a not-so-subtle reminder of who was still in charge, perhaps, but any glimmer of control Stephanie thought she might have from this position was quickly diminished when Emily instantly slipped a hand into the burning heat between Stephanie’s legs.

Stephanie was putty. Emily had her. She was hers to do what she liked with, all Stephanie silently asked was that she do it quickly.

Two of her long fingers curled and stretched as far as they could and back up again. Excruciatingly lightly. Enough pressure to please but not enough to satisfy.

Taking matters into her own hands (literally), Stephanie reached in between her legs and pushed Emily’s hand harder against her, her hips bucking involuntarily at the sweet and sudden pressure.

“Mmh,” she hummed, and in her amorous haze, Stephanie caught the curl of a smile on Emily’s lips.

The smug kind.

Emily knew how crazy she was driving Stephanie and she was enjoying it. If she hadn’t been quite so turned on Stephanie might have made an attempt at wiping the smug smile off her face. She might have pulled back and took the time to drive Emily crazy instead. Take her up to the periphery of pleasure and simply stop. Refusing to take her there.

But Stephanie was too far gone now and who was she kidding anyway, Emily had too much of a hold on her. She doubted she could deny her anything she wanted.

“ _Emily_ ,” Stephanie pleaded, resting her head against hers.

“What do you want?” With the hand not occupied between Stephanie’s legs, Emily eased the straps of Stephanie’s dress off her shoulders.

“You know what I want.”

Emily pulled the dress down further, exposing the plain black bra underneath. “Mmhm, I do.” She tugged at her bra, exposing her breast, took Stephanie’s nipple into her mouth and sucked at it before saying, “but I want you to tell me.”

“I want… _you_...” it was all Stephanie could get out. Her whole body consumed and focused on the growing, tightening need deep within. A need that Emily encouraged with soft strokes along the growing dampness of her panties.

She wished then that she hadn’t bothered wearing them. There would be nothing between them then.

“You want me to _what_ , baby?”

A tease. That’s what she was being, and Stephanie had no resolve to play her game. She needed her. Intensely.

Stephanie let out a sound somewhere between a whimper and a growl. A ravenous, yearning sound. “Fuck me, Emily.” She squeezed a hand into her hair, pulling it a little and ground her hips hard into her.

“Ooh. She’s feisty.”

The only tell that Emily was affected by what was happening lay in her voice. The husky growl of it. Other than that, she seemed so composed. It was infuriating.

Her lips were over her nipple again. Teeth firmly nipping the bud and tongue swirling expertly around it.

“Emily… _please_.”

Finally, and thankfully, Emily succumbed to Stephanie’s pleas and slipped her hand into her underwear.

Everything passed in a lustful blur after that. Emily stroked her so skilfully that Stephanie was close in a matter of minutes.

Somehow Emily knew exactly the right movements to make to send Stephanie into oblivion. Better than she knew herself. Every move she made was one of expertise.

The way she lapped up her juices and spread them, eased them up to her clit so her fingers glided over it.

The way she sucked at her breast, kissed across to the valley between them and up across her chest while she dove two fingers inside her.

The way she gripped her ass so tightly with her free hand, to (needlessly, it might be said) help rock Stephanie’s hips against her hand. So tightly that Stephanie was sure there would be marks left there. Little fingernail imprints that wouldn’t last long, a day or two maybe, and that no-one else would see but felt so much like Emily’s claim on her that she didn’t even register the sting of it. It felt good, actually. It all did.

Stephanie rode Emily’s fingers like a jockey would a horse. Unwavering and relentlessly.

It was likely that people heard them. Stephanie had forgotten that they were in a public place and any intention she might have previously had of keeping it down was completely gone. The sounds that had been in the background before, of people talking and the thump of bass had disappeared. But no-one had knocked. Security hadn’t come in to kick them out. They’d been in here a while and no-one seemed to care. Perhaps this happened often or, perhaps, the music of the band had drowned out Stephanie’s passionate cries.

“Fuck… Stephanie.” Emily held her bottom lip between her teeth. Her gaze fixed on Stephanie’s exposed, bouncing tits and the glimmer of sweat beginning to build up on the grace of her neckline.

If it felt good to have Emily call her baby, but it was breath-taking to have her say her name in that low, erotic tone.

Stephanie caught her eye as she continued to ride her, held tightly at the back of her neck with one hand and run the other through her hair, flicking it to one side in what she hoped was a sexy manner.

Emily quickly kissed her, so she figured it worked, curled her fingers inside her and pressed her thumb against the protruding, swollen lump of her clit.

It was enough to do it. The tightness inside her grew and grew until it exploded and sent wave upon wave of a pleasure so intense she could feel it in every vessel of her body. Her toes curled, her back arched, her hips bucked, and her hands gripped tightly into Emily’s skin.

The moan she let out wasn’t loud or over-the-top, it was low and ragged, a mixture of relief and agony because it felt so goddamn good it was appalling to end it. Something that incredible should never have to stop.

It took her a minute to recover. To come back to where she was. Head resting against Emily’s and heart thumping in her chest.  

“You wanna cuddle now?”

Such a tease.

“Shut up.” Stephanie replied, the sting she tried to put in the words lost in her breathlessness and the little smirk she couldn’t help give.

Emily kissed her on the lips, lifted her bra back up over her breasts and fixed the straps of her dress back into place on her shoulder.

“Come on, we should get out of here.”

“Yeah, just… give me a minute.”

Standing would definitely be a problem right now. Her legs still felt wobbly.

“It was that good, huh?”

It was irritating how cool she was. Or how cool she was trying to be. Stephanie knew there had been moments in their dalliance where Emily had been on the brink of losing it too, of giving up her show of unflappability and surrendering herself to the heat of the moment.

She was sure she could get her there again. She was sure that, given another chance, she could dismantle Emily’s walls and see her be truly vulnerable for a change.

“Okay. Let’s get out of here.” Stephanie said, took Emily’s face in both her hands and kissed her. Tenderly, but deeply. “Your place or mine?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
